February 13, 2012

Don’t Do These 6 Things When Migrating Data

When that moment comes it’s a nervous feeling, you are about to deploy your new CRM application to the whole organisation.

Will the users like the system? Will there be an influx of issues or will there be an influx of praise?

In the end, if you have put enough effort into acceptance testing then apart from initial niggles, everyone will feel a great sense of achievement for a good result. Over time the users become familiar with new CRM system and the old one becomes a distant memory.

But look how a small error can change a perception - I heard about one CRM deployment where the project roll-out seemed perfect, the software run smoothly, the processes implemented made life easier for everyone, but on the very first screen the very first two company records starting with ‘A’ where duplicates.

All of a sudden, the focus shifted from the magnificent project roll-out to how come we have duplicates and did anyone clean the data. A proliferation of questions was raised and the focus became the data. All those positive feelings gone out of the window!

Taking a generous view, perhaps only a few duplicates remained or a less generous view, perhaps their data quality was just ignored.

Either way, don’t let mistakes like these affect your results, after all you deserve that perfect CRM roll out, so read about 6 things we found most commonly ignored by organisations.

Don’t Forget to Consult End Users

By consulting with users at the start of a CRM deployment you gain clarification, during the project you can validate data and at the end you have complete sign-off.

You will ensure end-user buy-in and more importantly have the data the business really wants.

Don’t Forget to Remove Old Information

Often a large amount of data is so old that no relationship exists with the client. The record is there simply for historical purposes. If the information is old then seriously think about deleting the record, as it is likely the contacts have moved on and/or the company details have changed.

Check with your legal department if you need to keep it for historical reasons.

If you don’t need the data then better to delete and un-clutter the CRM system.

Don’t Forget to Validate the Currency of Your Data

Data degrades daily; everyday contacts are moving, companies going bust, contact details changing, and so on. Knowing that the business has all the current contacts builds confidence in the CRM application – end users don’t differentiate between the CRM application and the data in it.

So having up-to-date data will not only strengthen your marketing ROI and customer experiences, but it enhances your reputation within the organisation.

Don’t Forget to Create a Single Customer View

Having all the duplicates removed, contacts linked to the right organisations and a correct view of a client will help your sales organisation to target clients accurately. The CRM application will give a complete picture of the account history so you can decide how to up-sell and/or cross-sell.

Don’t Forget to Standardise Your Data

Reputation is very important to any organisation, so don’t let poor data formatting affect this. For example, incorrect name spellings, incorrect salutations, poor layout of an address, incorrect job titles, badly formatted telephone numbers, and so on.

How often do people get annoyed at their personal details being held incorrectly – too often to mention.

It’s your reputation and this is something that’s easily fixed.

Don’t Forget To Measure Your Data

Use a simple metric to start measuring your data. Migration is the perfect time to start this process. Create a simple measure and then track monthly and you will soon see a picture of the quality of your data.

Comments

When that moment comes it’s a nervous feeling, you are about to deploy your new CRM application to the whole organisation.

Will the users like the system? Will there be an influx of issues or will there be an influx of praise?

In the end, if you have put enough effort into acceptance testing then apart from initial niggles, everyone will feel a great sense of achievement for a good result. Over time the users become familiar with new CRM system and the old one becomes a distant memory.

But look how a small error can change a perception - I heard about one CRM deployment where the project roll-out seemed perfect, the software run smoothly, the processes implemented made life easier for everyone, but on the very first screen the very first two company records starting with ‘A’ where duplicates.

All of a sudden, the focus shifted from the magnificent project roll-out to how come we have duplicates and did anyone clean the data. A proliferation of questions was raised and the focus became the data. All those positive feelings gone out of the window!

Taking a generous view, perhaps only a few duplicates remained or a less generous view, perhaps their data quality was just ignored.

Either way, don’t let mistakes like these affect your results, after all you deserve that perfect CRM roll out, so read about 6 things we found most commonly ignored by organisations.

Don’t Forget to Consult End Users

By consulting with users at the start of a CRM deployment you gain clarification, during the project you can validate data and at the end you have complete sign-off.

You will ensure end-user buy-in and more importantly have the data the business really wants.

Don’t Forget to Remove Old Information

Often a large amount of data is so old that no relationship exists with the client. The record is there simply for historical purposes. If the information is old then seriously think about deleting the record, as it is likely the contacts have moved on and/or the company details have changed.

Check with your legal department if you need to keep it for historical reasons.

If you don’t need the data then better to delete and un-clutter the CRM system.

Don’t Forget to Validate the Currency of Your Data

Data degrades daily; everyday contacts are moving, companies going bust, contact details changing, and so on. Knowing that the business has all the current contacts builds confidence in the CRM application – end users don’t differentiate between the CRM application and the data in it.

So having up-to-date data will not only strengthen your marketing ROI and customer experiences, but it enhances your reputation within the organisation.

Don’t Forget to Create a Single Customer View

Having all the duplicates removed, contacts linked to the right organisations and a correct view of a client will help your sales organisation to target clients accurately. The CRM application will give a complete picture of the account history so you can decide how to up-sell and/or cross-sell.

Don’t Forget to Standardise Your Data

Reputation is very important to any organisation, so don’t let poor data formatting affect this. For example, incorrect name spellings, incorrect salutations, poor layout of an address, incorrect job titles, badly formatted telephone numbers, and so on.

How often do people get annoyed at their personal details being held incorrectly – too often to mention.

It’s your reputation and this is something that’s easily fixed.

Don’t Forget To Measure Your Data

Use a simple metric to start measuring your data. Migration is the perfect time to start this process. Create a simple measure and then track monthly and you will soon see a picture of the quality of your data.